German animals given legal rights

Life may be about to change for the average German farmyard creature, zoo animal and household pet after the go-ahead was given yesterday to award animals rights in the constitution alongside those given to human beings.

Paragraph 20a of the German basic law now says that animals, like humans, have the right to be respected by the state and to have their dignity protected.

Their entry into the constitution ends a decade-long battle between politicians and campaigners.

It means that the rights of animals will in theory be viewed more stringently in every area of life.

"We hope this will bring a whole range of changes," said the president of the German Animal Protection League, Wolfgang Apel, adding that he expected it to lead to a tightening in rules for drugs and cosmetics testing.

Previous laws - recognised in 11 of the 16 German states - governed only the conditions in which animals were held. The new legislation covers every type of animal from household pets to those held in zoos and parks.

However, the agricultural ministry has admitted the law is unlikely to bring radical changes overnight. Opponents of the amendment, particularly many conservatives who declined for years to support it, say it risks putting animals on a higher level than humans and undermines the concept of human spirituality.

However, many on the right were won round to supporting the law, seeing it as the lesser of two evils after the constitutional court last year ruled in favour of allowing Muslim butchers to slaughter animals in the traditional way without them first being stunned.

The change follows a final vote yesterday in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament, where it won support from two-thirds of members.

It makes Germany the first European Union country to pass such legislation and will encourage animal rights campaigners to fight for similar law changes elsewhere. Switzerland, a non-EU member, amended its constitution in 1992 so that animals were acknowledged as "beings" rather than things.

Germany's Green environment minister Renate Künast has insisted that the ruling has to be widened to limit the duration of animal transports, and to limit vivisection.

The amendment came into force on the same day that the German Animal Protection League began legal action against the state broadcaster ZDF, accusing it of abusing a monkey in one of its programmes. The animal, one of the stars of a vet drama programme, is alleged to have been beaten by his trainer. ZDF denies the charge.